links for 2011-09-20

As someone with family ties in the area, I’m constantly challenged by the majority of stories about Michigan. But, it’s not hard to see why Detroit is so frequently used as the poster city of our collective economic straits. Inner city blight, the exodus of college graduates, deep cuts in social services, and a shocking adult illiteracy rate: Detroit has all the hallmarks of a city in the throes of disaster. It’s upsetting, but no real surprise then that most of the media attention the city gets is negative.

Facebook hosts 140 billion photos, and will add 70 billion this year, according to the blog of photo-sharing site 1000memories.
Putting this in context, 1000memories made the following visualization which shows how big Facebook's library of photos are in comparison to other photo sharing sites, as well as the Library of Congress.

Online classes can simulate a traditional college lecture, an interactive class discussion and hands-on training with the help of Skype, a software application that enables users to make video and voice calls online. Skype adds a whole other dimension to the online classroom, by allowing students to talk face-to-face with their professors and classmates for free.

It has often been said throughout time that a picture is worth a thousand words. Any picture may be worth a thousand words, but only a few rare photos tell more than a thousand words. They tell a powerful story, a story poignant enough to change the world and galvanize each of us. Over and over again…

LibGuides provides excellent support as my Head of Library discovered when she contacted them for help and received an immediate reply. I’m not a fan of ploughing through text-heavy manuals so I found a visual alternative which you can have a look at here. I had a look at how Illawara Grammar School and Trinity Grammar School (NSW) presented their school library’s ‘face’ and organised their pathfinders and online resources. LibGuides also offers examples and reviews of their product here. Seneca Libraries also have a great manual for the creation of subject guides in LibGuides.